Being from the Philadelphia area, there’s a natural inclination among my kin and my kind to be against Dallas, TX. Weyerbacher Brewing in Easton, PA has a pale ale called Dallas Sucks. When I posted a picture of Dallas to Facebook, my friend commented, “Dallas Sucks.” … and, of the cities I’ve visited so far, I’ve probably liked Dallas the least.
To be fair, I did not spend much time in Dallas and it is the biggest city I’ve visited. To date, most of the cities I’ve visited have been small to mid-sized cities that were easy to navigate. Dallas, compared to the other places I’ve been (Richmond, KC, St. Louis, Memphis), is big. In fact, as I was driving into Dallas, I mistook Plano which is maybe 20 or 30 minutes away from Dallas for being Dallas (because I had never seen Dallas and because Plano has it’s share of big buildings).
Visually, Dallas has a nice skyline. It’s both spread out yet condensed to the downtown area (meaning the tall buildings are downtown but more spread out than in New York or Chicago). This has the strange effect of making the buildings stand out more and making Dallas seem really big. NYC seems to have so many tall buildings that few stand out because everything looks tall. Most of the buildings in Dallas are that silvery reflective glass style, but a few have a modern art deco style. It’s a shiny, reflective cityscape.
Navigating Dallas (both coming and going) was challenging. The highways are multi-lane and multi-leveled with a speed limit of 70mph and a lot of on and off ramps. After driving in, I was stressed enough that I googled “Dallas traffic insane” and came across an article saying Dallas is the most dangerous city to drive in: “Compared to the national average, you’re over 46 percent more likely to get in a car crash in the Dallas area.” If you want to see the madness, Google aerial shots of the highway system in Dallas (or the High Five Interchange), and you’ll see what I mean (I don’t feel like dealing with copyright and posting an image). And it’s not just that the system seems a little nuts, but the volume of cars is just right that everyone is moving at a pretty good clip and it can be difficult to change lanes. I saw more than a few people cut across multiple lanes almost missing their exits.
Despite trying to shrug off my preconceived notions of Dallas, and of Texas in general, I found them being confirmed. I saw a lot of pick up trucks with big, fat tires driving aggressively. I heard plenty of Country music. And one of my few encounters with a random person on the street was with a very proud and vocal trumper who was working for a tour bus company near the Kennedy assassination site. I hadn’t said anything about politics, but he surmised because I was from Philly that I was a northeastern elite… He joking reminded me that I was in Cowboy country and then proceeded to talk about how he’s proud that they’re sending buses of migrants to cities like Philly. He said they don’t want camps down here along the border (as though that what’s the liberals want to see). He said the migrants aren’t even Mexican but are from Africa and they’re rapists and criminals (why else would they be fleeing their country). He continued on to say that he likes how Trump stands (physical posture). He stood up tall as if to be proud like Trump. He likes how he stands in front of people and talks over them. I was polite, but happy to leave his company.
Unfortunately, this is precisely what I think of Texas: full of bravado… bragging that everything is bigger in Texas or parroting the oft quoted (though misunderstood) slogan, “Don’t mess with Texas.” The slogan by the way was an anti-littering campaign and had nothing to do with Texas being tough or rugged. I think of ten-gallon hats and rootin’, tootin’ shootin loudmouths like Yosemite Sam, a “mean-spirited and extremely aggressive, gunslinging outlaw or cowboy with a hair-trigger temper.”
While I was only there for a weekend, I noticed that Dallas, like almost every city, has a significant homeless problem. While I didn’t see any tent encampments, I saw dozens of people sleeping on benches in the parks. It’s a problem that doesn’t seem to draw the national attention the way it does in San Francisco (perhaps because it’s in a red state). I also noticed that very few people in downtown Dallas make eye contact with you or smile as they pass. While it didn’t strike me as an unfriendly city, it didn’t strike me as a friendly city either. I’m hoping to get a better impression from Austin, but generally speaking, Despite it’s size, I don’t think Texas is for me.